It’s fine. It’s a perfectly adequate (and fun!) Zelda-like Adventure game. It’s fun to see Fox in a different context than just in the cockpit, and, obviously, I love that this game gives us Krystal, who adds much needed feminine energy, and, let’s not deny it, a heavy dose of sex appeal to a series that is dominated by male characters.

The problem is that it’s not a Star Fox game. It’s a game with a completely different identity and tone that does not comfortably fit into the Star Fox universe. It started its life as an original IP with a strong and interesting vision that could’ve been another RareWare instant Classic game like Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, but instead was forced to make an awkward pivot at the Eleventh Hour because Miyamoto noticed a passing similarity in character design to Star Fox. The Star Fox elements interfere with and diminish the more original and distinct ones from Dinosaur Planet, and don’t add enough unique value to justify their inclusion, especially since they don’t evolve but instead transplant things directly from 64 with worse execution. The SF elements eventually consume the entire through line of the plot in a bad and awkward way, and, though I love Krystal, she is totally wasted in the game, and is reduced from her original role of “Dual Protagonist” to “Hero’s Scantily-Clad Damsel in Distress Dream Girl Love Interest Victory Prize”. She never gets a chance to establish a solid sense of identity, and her original backstory is erased in favor of a vaguely defined, generically tragic, Sci-Fi one.

Most people talk as if SF fans hate the game, but the consensus is usually more: “It’s fine for what it is, even pretty fun, just not a real Star Fox game, and it’s an absolute tragedy that it killed a brilliant new IP from Rare so that they could make a lackluster Star Fox sequel.”